The theme of the Giants' three-win comeback over the Cardinals was fortitude and a refusal to die. All of that might have been true, but there was a simple baseball angle, too. They pitched, hit and fielded better than the defending World Series champs.

Matt Cain, who did not have a spectacular postseason, furthered the work of Barry Zito and Ryan Vogelsong in the prior two games and five-hit the Cardinals over 5 2/3 innings in Monday night's 9-0 clincher.

That old Giants standard, their rotation, keyed their 20-1 run advantage over the final three wins.

"I think that number is surprising, but you guys have seen it," Vogelsong said. "We're capable of pitching like that. It's not like we haven't done it before. An offense like that, (the 20-1 advantage) is not something you'd expect, but we pulled it off."

The bullpen was nails in the series, too. It allowed four runs in 18 innings, and all of those scored in one game, the Cardinals' 8-3 Game 4 victory at St. Louis.

The Giants also caught the ball better than St. Louis did and made three superb plays in Game 7.

Brandon Belt dived to stop a David Freese grounder and threw from his knees to get a force at second base. That slowed a Cardinals rally. Brandon Crawford killed it when he leaped to catch pitcher Kyle Lohse's two-out, broken-bat liner to prevent two runs that would have given the Cardinals a 2-1 lead.

Getting his due? Matt Holliday returned to the lineup after a back injury sidelined him for Game 6. With the Giants leading 7-0 in the sixth inning, Cain threw an 0-2, two-seam fastball that rode inside and hit Holliday in the upper arm.

The crowd was sure Cain did it on purpose to avenge Holliday's takeout of Marco Scutaro in Game 2, but that is not likely. With nobody out in the inning, 12 outs to go in the game and the Cardinals more than able to launch a comeback, Cain probably had no motivation to give them a "Russ Ortiz" moment to wake them.

Belt homer: Belt punctuated the game and series by hitting a solo homer off closer Jason Motte with two outs in the eighth inning for the Giants' ninth run.

As he rounded the bases, Belt said, "I was thinking, 'Thank goodness.' They've been pounding me in the whole time, and I got my barrel to the ball."

Helping themselves

In each of the final three games of the NLCS, the Giants' starting pitcher drove in a run. A look at those at-bats: